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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

AAR- First Blood in Uwanda

This is the first battle of my fictional African campaign between the nations of Mugabia and Uwanda using homebrew skirmish rules. It was a village raid by the Uwanda Liberation Front (ULF), a rebel group backed by Mugabia, against the Uwandan village guard, a sort of makeshift militia/police. If you need a little background on the forces involved, check here:

It was a typical night at border post A59. As always 6 guards were stationed at the post, with two guards on duty at all times. Mostly, the night shift sat and listened to the night. Occasionally a traveller would pass through, but they were few along the border with Mugabia. Often, one of the guards would drift off, only to be startled awake by the cry of an animal in the wild.Tonight , Roja was the only thing standing between Uwanda and an invading army, as his comrade was in never-never land. As Roja was leaning back in his chair with his feet up, he wondered what creature might be snapping the occasional twig in the night. Briefly, he considered going out to see what it was, but decided that like always, he'd never find it in the darkness. He fell over backwards as both of the post doors crashed inward, and a man with a gun yelled " Nobody move! You are prisoners of the Uwandan Liberation Front."

The scenario was a night raid on a border check point and small Uwandan town near the border with Mugabia. Uwandan Liberation Front (ULF) forces were to subdue the border guards, collect weapons and equipment, then bring in trucks, raid the village, possibly conscript some new fighters, and gather any useful supplies.

Visibility was very short due to darkness, requiring sighting rolls to identify friend or foe. ULF forces consisted of 3 trucks, 30 fighters, with AKs and one light machine gun. The game consisted of two separate actions; (1) subdue the border post, and (2) raid the village. Border post A59 had 6 Uwanda border police, while the village had 5 village guard "troops" determined by a die roll just before setup.

Above - A view looking west from the Mugabian side of the border,

the guard house is in the foreground, the village down the road.

Thanks to bad dice, the first action of the campaign was resolved without a shot fired. Ten ULF fighters dismounted the lead truck and crossed the border a little north of the border post, and worked their way up to the post. Despite poor ULF leadership resulting in a slow advance, The guards failed 10 chances to hear, site, or otherwise be alerted by the enemy. The "battle" was resolved when the ULF fighters kicked in the doors of the guard post and took the Uwandan guards prisoner without a fight. Three ULF fighters were assigned to guard the prisoners.

Above - ULF militiamen preparing to rush into the guardhouse.

The second phase of the scenario, the town raid, was much more violent, and equally surprising.

A group of ULF fighters approached from each road into the town. The East and West road were sealed off to catch fleeing locals, while the ULF leader swept into the town with the third group. The town featured a sort of village elder, a sort of chief/mayor/ leader of the village guard, etc. The ULF commander decided to sneak into town, subdue the elder, take out a disorganized village guard, and then gather resources.

Above - The village looking east toward the Mugabian border.

A road "Tees" in from the right in the center of the village.

As it turned out, on the turn that the ULF burst into the elder's house, the elder was alerted (via the dice) to the presence of the ULF outside, so he was prepared for the intrusion and shot the first two fighters through the door. Over the next few turns, ULF fighters got caught in chaos, shot 13 villagers and only one village guard member. They also shot two of their own in the darkness. The village guard managed to kill another 8 ULF members, including the leader, which resulted in catastrophic morale failure for the ULF.

Above - ULF fighters preparing to surprise the village elder,

shortly before their surprise by the village elder.

As the wheels came off of the plan and a lot of gunfire and yelling was heard from the village, the ULF fighters guarding the prisoners, decided to shoot the prisoners and run away. As the first two prisoners were shot, the others tried to fight back. The result was that one of the prisoners wrestled an AK from a ULF guard, wounded him , and killed the other two ULF guards.

In the end, the ULF lost 13 of 30 fighters, with 3 wounded being captured, lost the three trucks, and captured no weapons, prisoners, or supplies. The Uwandans lost 1 village guard, 10 villagers and 5 border guards with an additional three villagers wounded . The Uwandans ended up with three prisoners and after a little searching, three new old trucks.

It didn't take long for one of the prisoners to admit that the Mugabian army had equipped and trained his force, and given the ULF intelligence regarding the border station and village. The stage was set. It would be a very hot summer.

The photos were originally sized for a new website, but it was taking forever to create the pages, so I published them here. Unfortunately, the pics for the next couple posts are already done the same way, and I can't find the originals, so they may end up a bit small too. After that though, I promise better pics.